Our Family: More New Pets

Last weekend we visited the USA Science & Engineering festival in Washington, D.C. The event lasted for two days and featured over 3,000 booths, a book fair and a career pavilion. This was the second such national festival and our second visit. We thought that the girls would enjoy it even more this year, since Lacey has acquired much more English. We spent a couple hours watching robotic vehicles; experimenting with magnets; learning about our senses; solving math problems; and using software to design cities. Our legs were tired, the crowd was becoming unmanageable and we were really hungry. And then we saw them, in an obscure booth near the far end of the exhibits. It was as though some invisible force was at work, beckoning the girls. Worms!! I don't know how the girls spotted them. Perhaps they were tired of looking at electronic and mechanical things and yearned to see something alive. But, suddenly, we just weren't going to survive without worms.

This fascinating exhibit showed how a few worms can consume kitchen scraps, thus eliminating trash and helping the environment. These same few worms can also create "organic soil conditioner;" and provide "natural fertilizer." Frankly, I'm not sophisticated enough to know the difference between soil conditioner and fertilizer.

Les was an easy sell. For a few dollars, he bought the plans to build a composter and took note of how to order worms by mail.

I wasn't so convinced and risked ruining lunch with talk of worms.

"Ohh! They're so cute, Mom" pressed Cassie. "And, just think, we could be so GREEN!!"

Well. . . we had raised worms when I was a kid. They lived in a styrofoam cooler in the basement and ate coffee grounds. When we wanted to go fishing we got an empty soup can and plucked out a few worms. I didn't remember any particular benefit to the environment. But, I did have to admit that I didn't recall any of them escaping. Then, I shared a vague recollection of Uncle Dave raising worms in his garage. Strangely, I couldn't recall any disasters associated with his endeavor either.

So, I agreed to the worms. Hey, they shouldn't be as much work as a dog.